State Govt rides on rules loopholes

Controversy over nominated MDC

SHILLONG: The state government has found loopholes in the amended district council rules especially related to KHADC, and hence justified the recommendation of the name of Irene Lyngdoh as nominated MDC, instead of going by the nomination of KHADC which preferred the retired District Council Judge J Reenbohn
A government source said on Wednesday that the sub rule 2 of the amended rule 6 of KHADC states that “the district council may, if it so desires, recommend the name of persons for nominations”.
According to the government source, this has given power to the state government to nominate its own candidate as the powers of district council are conditional and not absolute.
Recently, the Governor V. Shanmuganathan returned both the names for the decision of the cabinet.
The cabinet recommended Irene Lyngdoh as its choice.
However, the Governor is yet to approve the nomination of the Cabinet.
As far as the nomination of Conrad Sangma by GHADC is concerned, the district council affairs department is yet to get any feedback from the Governor on the letter written by the Council chief Denang Sangma to the Governor to use his power to clear the name of Conrad as nominated member.
In the letter, the Council chief had cited that it was in pursuance of Rule 6 (1) of its constitution that the district council had proposed the name of Conrad .
Rule 6 (1) of the Constitution of the Garo Hills District Council (Sixth Amendment) Act, 1977 states “The District Council of the Garo Hills Autonomous District shall consist of thirty members of whom twenty-nine shall be elected on the basis of adult suffrage and the remaining one shall be nominated by the Governor on the advice of the District Council, and the allocation of seats therein shall be as shown in Appendix 1 to these Rules.”